DRAFT STRATEGY & DEFENSE
Jennifer Smith
Favorite Pick: My first and favorite pick this draft was Bret Hart vs. British Bulldog from 1992. I remember being completely blown away after watching this one. Bret Hart has never been one of my favorites but there was something amazing in his chemistry with Davey Boy Smith. Dynamic action and juicy family drama coupled with the surprising (to me) finish makes this match worthy of the top pick.
Least Favorite Pick: Good Lord, pickings were getting slim towards the end so my least favorite pick would have to be Muraco vs. Bravo from 1988. I feel like no explanation is needed here but if you wanna watch it, be my guest.
Defense: So the SummerSlam project is what brought us all together here as a Watch Family many moons ago. Theoretically, I have seen about 90% of all SummerSlam events. However, I was inebriated for most of these extremely fun watches. My strategy here was simple; draft the matches I could remember watching in order of how much I liked them. Also to include as many of the best Randy Orton matches as I could get. And to try to grab the few good women’s matches that exist. I love my Bertha Faye vs. Alundra Blayze match from 1995 and I think there is a good mix of fun and greatness in my roster.
Best Draft Not My Own: I like Neil Trama’s list because he’s got Bret vs. Owen, Savage vs. Warrior, and the ladder match from 2000. Plus a lot of other pure nonsense that I enjoy.
Logan Crosland
Favorite Pick: My favorite pick of this draft was my first pick, which was the ladder match from SummerSlam 95 between Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon. A rematch from their instant classic at WrestleMania X, these two guys went out there and in my opinion outdid themselves. This is in my opinion the best match in SummerSlam history. I can see the argument for others but this one has my money.
Least Favorite Pick: My least favorite of my picks in this draft is my next last pick, which was the cage match between Kane and Undertaker vs. DDP and Kanyon. The match itself just isn’t that great along with the fact that the Brothers of Destruction absolutely bury two guys that could’ve been a major parts of the opposition in the Invasion storyline. Page and Kanyon were toast after his match, with Kanyon basically disappearing and Page have some light success with the European Title but was mostly a non factor himself.
Defense: I started my draft knowing that if it was still around I was going to take Michaels vs. Ramon. From there I tried to grab as many matches from the 91 show as I could because it is my favorite SummerSlam. I was able to get both Virgil vs. Dibiase, the Jailhouse match, and the 6 man, all of which I think are among the more underrated matches in SS history. Once we hit about round 16 it really became just trying to get anything that was somewhat decent and somewhat memorable. While I can’t say any of the ones I got were classics or anything I think I got a pretty solid array of matches, including quite a few solid IC title matches including Miz vs. Dolph and Brown vs. Jarrett. All in all I am very satisfied with my draft. As much as I would’ve liked to have gotten a few matches I didn’t I think my draft is among the best.
Best Draft Not My Own: I’m going to have to go with the Old Grumpy Slut himself, Tyler Kelley. His first four picks are about as good as it gets. Cena vs. Bryan, Hart vs. Perfect, and Angle vs. Mysterio are all among my favorite SummerSlam matches and he was able to grab all three. I’ll also give a nod to Neil as he got my TLC 1, which is also one of my favorites and my favorite of that series between those three teams.
Tyler Kelley
Favorite Pick: Many (myself included) feel John Cena vs. Daniel Bryan from ‘13 is the best match in SummerSlam history, so I’ve gotta go with that one at the third overall pick. I did love getting Bret vs. Perfect in Round 2 and thought that Benoit vs. Orton in Round 6 and Steiners vs. the Heavenly Bodies in Round 10 were great value.
Least Favorite Pick: Rey Mysterio vs. Chavo Guerrero from 2007. I had it as the best on the board and remember it as an OK match, but I feel a little dirty picking a Chavo match. And I’m not into Dirty Chavos.
Defense: I started out taking the best available match on the board, as I did with the NXT draft. As the draft went on, I did try to make sure I represented all eras, different types of matches and moments. By the time the mid and later rounds went on, I might be willing to sacrifice star ratings for a more memorable match or moment. I think this strategy worked out great for me, as I think I got the best match in SummerSlam history and some great value with later picks.
Best Draft Not My Own: Other than Mine: Trent Williams had a lot of nice picks here. I love that Christian vs. Orton match he got in round 2, which was a nice compliment to Lesnar vs. Punk that he snagged in the first round. I also thought Shawn vs. Martel, Harts vs. Demos from ‘88 and Jericho vs. Rhyno were decent value picks.
Trent Williams
Favorite Pick: Ric Flair vs. Mick Foley (I Quit Match – SummerSlam 2006) I wanted to choose an underrated match to highlight with my favorite pick writeup. Despite the fact that this match is between two of the greatest pro wrestlers of all time, this match hardly ever gets talked about when the topic of great SummerSlam matches is discussed. That’s probably because most people write it off immediately due to the fact that in 2006 both men were way past their prime, however these two veterans showed why they are two of the greatest ever and even though the match wasn’t a five star classic from a work-rate perspective they made up for it with great drama and story telling. This match occurred during the year of “Extreme” Ric Flair where he thought he needed to make up for his shortcomings in the ring by competing in matches that were out of the norm of what he usually did. These matches usually resulted in Ric blading and bleeding like a sieve and this match was no different. I do have mixed feelings on the finish as I love how Flair gets super pissed that the referee wants to stop the match on a couple of occasions without Foley saying I Quit and this causes Flair to go into a violent rage on Foley. The part of the finish I don’t like is the fact that Foley only quit when Flair threatened to bludgeon Melina with a barbed wire baseball bat (this was because Foley at the time was a perv hitting on women much younger than himself and I guess Melina was supposed to be the girl he had the strongest feelings for) which was just a lame and anti climactic ending to an otherwise really fun hardcore match.
Least Favorite Pick: John Cena vs. Baron Corbin (SummerSlam 2017). I actually don’t remember much of this match which is pretty sad since it has only been two years since it happened, but the fact that Baron Corbin is in it must mean it couldn’t have been that great. The one thing I do remember about it was the fact that this was the feud that started after Cena cost Corbin his Money in the Bank briefcase as at the time WWE wasn’t that happy with Corbin after he dared to speak out of turn during a meeting about concussions. I will say that I did feel a little sad for Corbin during this match as he is in there with the top guy in the company and instead of Cena being a pro and helping make the match great he instead decides to clown on Corbin the entire match and it was obvious he couldn’t give two fucks about being in there with Corbin, and the fact that this match opened the show couldn’t have set that well with Cena either.
Defense: This is the third Draft Wars we have done and I have come to the conclusion that you can’t have much of a strategy in these things because it usually goes out the window when people start picking the matches you planned on picking, so other than just making sure there is a wide variety of matches there really is no strategy. Reasons why you should pick my roster: 1. Lesnar vs. Punk is a great match 2. Orton vs. Christian was a match where Orton was actually motivated which resulted in a great match to blow off their feud. 2. New Day vs. Usos is the greatest non gimmick tag match in SummerSlam history (even though it was on the kickoff show) 3. A great ladder match that was for the custody of a child because who needs to feud over championships when you have a child’s custody you can put on the line instead. This was also one of the first appearances of Vickie Guerrero and of course she missed her cue which pissed Eddie off. 4. Ronda Rousey’s only SummerSlam match where she wins the title. 5. I have the match that broke Becky away from being Charlotte’s sidekick and turned her into “The Man”. 6. I have a match that features Sabu and nobody else can say that. 7. I have more women’s matches on my roster than anyone else. 8. Most importantly I have two Alexa Bliss matches on my roster and it just so happens that as I’m writing this on 8/9/19 it is the birthday of “The Goddess” so all should bow and wish her HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
Best Draft Not My Own: Tyler Kelley. Tyler hit the jackpot in this draft as he has a streak of 11 consecutive match picks that are really great and would make my list of top SummerSlam matches of all time. I mean just look at the quality of some of the matches he picked just in the first eleven rounds Cena vs. Bryan, Cena vs. Punk, Bret vs. Perfect, Angle vs. Mysterio, & Benoit vs. Orton all of those matches are SummerSlam classics. Even if you look past those first 11 rounds there are still a lot of solid matches that are fun to watch like Swagger vs. Rusev, X-Pac vs. Jarrett, Owen vs. Vega, and even the tag turmoil match from 1999 has some great action in the beginning between the Hardyz and Edge & Christian. He doesn’t have that many really bad matches on his draft, the only ones I would consider bad are Rock vs. Gunn, Hercules vs. Valentine, Triple H vs. Eugene, and the Nakamura vs. Mahal match because the 2017 reign of terror with Mahal as champion still gives me nightmares. I do have to deduct points because he has Rey vs. Chavo on his draft and it’s not because the match is bad, it’s because he went against the one motto here at Place to be Nation and that is FUCK CHAVO!!!
Neil Trama
Favorite Pick: Bret Hart is Mr. SummerSlam and if I couldn’t get Bret vs. Bulldog then I wanted Bret vs. Owen. I know it is debatable but I think the cage match is hands down a ***** classic and I’m thrilled to have got it. Speaking of blue bars cage matches, Warrior vs. Rude is a pretty fun match that I got really damn late all things considered.
Least Favorite Pick: OK so it turns out SummerSlam has some incredible highs and incredible lows. By the second half of the draft, we were all freely admitting that we were just looking for floaters among the shit. That having been said, I had to have been drunk when I picked Diesel vs. Mabel.
Defense: Looking back on my draft, I went with mostly storyline heavy selections. Bret/Owen, HTM/Warrior, Tornado/Perfect, Luger/Tatanka, even WWE/Nexus: all memorable angles. I balanced it out with a variety of wacky fanwank matches like my beloved Kid/Hakushi 95 opener, the crazy-ass Coach heel turn in Shane/Eric, a superfun 1993 six man tag, Lawler and Tazz fighting over a candy jar, and one of the most preposterous matches ever on WWE PPV: Oddities/Kaientai. Is my draft filled with five star classics? No. But I guarantee you wouldn’t be bored watching it from start to finish.
Best Draft Not My Own: At first glance I considered picking Jennifer’s draft based solely on her getting Bret/Bulldog, one of my top 10 matches of all time. But ultimately I sided with Logan Crosland. Up and down his card I see tons of matches that were on my radar and I’d have been perfectly fine ending up with a draft board that looked like his. Slight edge over the man I dubbed an Old Grumpy Slut: Tyler Kelley.
Steve Riddle
Favorite Pick: I was originally tempted to go with the Rockers/Tito vs. Rougeaus/Martel six-man from 1989, but instead I am going with another match from that show and that is Hogan/Beefcake vs. Savage/Zeus. That is a match that I feel has gotten better with time and everyone worked hard in that match, even Zeus and the crowd was red hot for the match. The fact that it was still around going into the 9th round was astounding given some of the matches that were picked ahead of it, including some of my own picks. So not risking that getting snagged up before the draft came back around to me for the 10th round, I snagged it when I did and I feel that I got great value for the match where it landed.
Least Favorite Pick: Other than the main event and the opener, 1988 was a pretty shobby show and none of the matches felt like good choices to have aside from the last few rounds. Going into the 21st round, I was starting to run low on personal choices of good matches, so I ended up going with Jake vs. Hercules which was a decent match, but I probably could’ve been able to snag that later in the draft. I’m sure some might question me choosing Taker vs. Taker in the 28th round, but the build and aura surrounding the match was enough for me to take it there.
Defense: SummerSlam is a interesting brand in that it had a lot of high quality matches and major moments, but most of the shows are made or broken by their undercards. As I have mentioned in the last few drafts, crafting a good draft does rely on where you are positioned and for me being in the 6th spot in the odd rounds and the 3rd spot in the even rounds, choosing quality matches was going to be an interesting challenge. I felt that I was able to get top quality with Rude vs. Warrior and Rock vs. Triple H with my first two picks, and then filling out the first few rounds with Test vs. Shane, the 1989 6-man tag, and Mankind vs. Triple H help build a strong top 5 matches for my card. I then feel like I was able to strengthen the midcard with solid matches like Ziggler vs. Rollins, Jericho vs. Ziggler, Bryan vs. Kane, and Neville vs. Tozawa. Going into the last 10 rounds, quality was going to be thrown out the window as we were scraping the bottom of the barrel but I feel that with matches like Dusty vs. HTM, Valentine vs. IRS, and New Day vs. Gallows and Anderson, there is enough there to keep the undercard somewhat interesting. Overall, I feel that I did a solid job in building a memorable SummerSlam card and am very happy with my results.
Best Draft Not My Own: So one of the strategies that I try to employ in doing the draft is to have several matches in mind for a round because when someone else picks a match you want, you have to have a backup plan in mind to fill the spot. Also as I have mentioned before, being able to pick either first in the round or last in the round is advantageous because you most often get two in a row. In that case, I will have to give props to Jennifer as she set the tone early by picking Bret vs. Bulldog first, and then she took some great picks in Taker vs. Edge, Mega Powers vs. Mega Bucks, and Michaels vs. Vader. I then felt that she filled out the remainder of her draft with some pretty solid picks with a few unique choices mixed in as well.
Jacob Williams
Favorite Pick: I loved that I was able to get Bret vs. Undertaker from 1997 in the back end of the third since I would consider it a possible late first rounder. Not only does it give me a great and really unique match (Shawn as referee builds the tension in the match so well), I also get the intangibles of it being a huge main event during arguably the most pivotal time in WWE history.
Least Favorite Pick: I likely could have grabbed the Boiler Room Brawl from 1996 much later, and though it’s really unique, it is also understandably polarizing, and I probably should have been a bit more objective with that pick.
Defense: Aside from obviously trying to get great matches, my main strategy was to get matches from a variety, and obviously get some big moments. My first three picks are all classics from fairly different eras. The middle of my roster has some nice hidden gems (Bryan vs. Barett), and I tried to at least get some interesting and novel stuff on the back end (Ludvig Borga!) to make up for match quality. My draft would make for an excellent SummerSlam setlist.
Best Draft Not My Own: Tyler Kelley really put together a great roster of matches. His first pick might be my favorite SummerSlam match ever (Cena vs. Bryan), and he has some cool gems later on like Steiners vs. Heavenly Bodies and Styles vs. Joe. Great job, Grumpy!
JT Rozzero
Favorite Pick: Lucking out with Steve Austin vs. Owen Hart making it back to at the end of the fifth round. I love that match, despite the ending, and think it is one of the best IC matches in SS history. Also, Steve Austin vs. Kurt Angleis my favorite SS match of all time, so nabbing that to kick off my draft at pick #8 tickled my fancy. And shout out to Del Rio vs. Christian too, good value at #8.
Least Favorite Pick: Honestly, nothing really jumps out at me… I guess Undertaker vs. Kane but at that point in the draft, it was anything goes.I don’t super love Hogan vs. Michaels but I don’t think I overpicked it or anything.
Defense: My goal, as always, was to take the best available match on the board while also mixing in some great moments and storylines. By the end of my draft, I was attempting to just avoid taking anything terrible that could drag my roster down. I think my roster is stocked with high quality matches and the value I got despite my draft position outweighs many who had a better slot.
Best Draft Not My Own: I will go with Tyler’s. His top five picks were tremendous and he surrounded them with strong, logical selections up and down the board.
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